Conveners
C1Or1A - Aerospace Cryocoolers I
- Peter Shirron (NASA/GSFC)
- Franklin Miller (University of Wisconsin - Madison)
The three major types of mechanical cryocoolers in aerospace applications, namely reverse-Brayton cryocoolers, Stirling/pulse tube cryocoolers and Joule-Thomson cryocoolers, have significantly different performance characteristics. Some of these differences are due to the nature of their thermodynamic cycles; others come from their drastically differences in mean operating pressures and...
There is an increasing need for compact, low-mass, long-life cryocoolers for Earth science, deep space, and astrophysics missions. Packaging a cryocooler within a CubeSat is challenging, and many deep space missions have extreme environmental conditions, such as exposure of “warm” hardware to cryogenic temperatures, and exposure to very high levels of radiation. Lockheed Martin’s...
The Mapping Imaging Spectrometer for Europa (MISE) instrument on the Europa Clipper mission will use a Lockheed Martin “high power” Micro1-2 pulse tube cryocooler with a heat rejection temperature below 250 K. This paper describes the performance testing and results of Lockheed Martin Micro1-2 coolers optimized for these conditions. The thermal performance of two microcoolers was measured in...
Northrop Grumman Aerospace Systems (NGAS) has expanded its cryocooler product line with the introduction of the Mini Cooler Plus. The NGAS Mini Cooler Plus is a split cooler with a coaxial cold head connected through a transfer line to a vibrationally balanced back to back linear compressor. The mini compressor plus is designed for Space and non-Space applications. It is scaled from NGAS...
The Ricor K508N is an upgraded version of the K508 that has extensive flight heritage. This paper reports performance and exported force results for the COTS K508N as well as a K508N filled to a higher fill pressure with a high frequency motor. A comparison is made between the results of the K508N coolers and the K508 to determine their suitability for cooling on CubeSat missions. In addition,...
The explosion in SmallSat and CubeSat deployments has led to a need for miniaturized cooling solutions for sensors that require cooling. Since there are limited opportunities for miniaturization in the thermal mechanical unit (TMU) portion of the cryocooling system, much of the pressure to reduce size falls on the cryocooler control electronics (CCE). In the world of digital electronics,...
